Natürlich

In 200 years there's going to be a news story about a person who uses a Forever Stamp from 2009.  People are going to share the story with their friends and say, "can you imagine!".

Informational Cascades, or: Welcome to 2009, The Year The Internet Finally Let Us Do Anything We Want

Welcome to 2009, gentle readers!  In today's post I propose to begin with a reflection on the past, then move to the present, and in-between discuss the future.

Since time immemorial, a perfectly sound reason for doing something has been the observation that other people are doing it.  In this fearsome blog post, Yours Truly follows in the footsteps of both peers and ancestors, as well as peers of ancestors (Important note: this does not include ancestors of peers).

With no ado beyond that which we've already endured, I hereby invite you, dear watchers (!!!!), to feast your minds and psyches on the following odyssey of communication, technology, art, and that burning, eternal flame that is black-and-white minimally moving human-like creatures:

In addition, and in the continued spirit of calendar-worshipping, I present to you a New Year's Gift of One New Speculation and One New Truth, for a Grand Total of One Speculation and One Truth thus far in this, our fairest of Gregorian years.

Speculation:

1. Responsibility exists only in the abstract.

Truth:

1. If you are not inside a Trader Joe's grocery establishment at the precise moment you find yourself in need a bag of freeze-dried mangosteen, you are going to spend your day unsatisfied.

Finally, let us also take a moment to celebrate that this blog just became even more multimedia than it already was.  If I didn't worry that it would cause us to shriek in overwhelmence, I would post a celebratory song.  For now, we shall suffice with a celebratory made-up word.  And a celebratory reward for any reader who spotted the made-up word before it was announced it was made-up.  And another celebratory reward for any reader who is currently shrieking in overwhelmence. 

Farewell for now, dear readers!  May your tomorrows continue to be affected by the things you did today and before that!

In Search of the Word For Attributing Familiarity to the Unfamiliar

I read an article recently that made the case for the Internet as an extension of our social lives -- as opposed to, as has been long argued by skeptics and other old-fashioned-ists, a replacement or substitute for it.

As with most issues of this uncertain sort, there are arguments to be readily made for both sides.

For example, your Fearless Leader is certainly sympathetic to Kurt Vonnegut's accusation that we modern people have lost respect for the Art of Conversation.

And, I'll be the first to admit that I could have spent the last hour talking to my friends in person rather than sitting here alone in my office.

But, to argue that during this past hour I have been untouched by my fellow human would be to err. Indeed, if it weren't for the Internet, Yours Truly wouldn't be sad:

ericamurray.blogspot.com.

Contrariwise

I just read something on THE INTERNET where someone argued that the fact that people in the Middle East are happy about Obama's victory is reason to be suspicious of Obama.  Now, your Fearless Leader is no conspiracy theorist, but aren't there millions of books about the connection between the Bush family and Saudi Arabia?  The evidence that we only see what we want to see never stops piling up.  

(Ten points to anyone who can find the mirror-facing-mirror in the previous sentence.)

Aside: Boy, are we lucky the Internet was named something cool!  Imagine if we were constantly referencing the Pancake instead.

Back to the point: It is troubling and interesting (in that order) that many Americans take issue with the fact that our so-called enemies have congratulated our new President.  Sure, if others were happy about a tragedy here, that's one thing.  But right now, for the first time in as long as I've been a voter, people are agreeing with the choice Americans have made.  Now, the following is not WORLD POLITICS CONFIRMED, but come now: isn't a good way to not fight with other people to ... not fight with other people?

Aside: Splitting infinitives; beginning sentences with conjunctions; overusing the semicolon; underusing conjunctions in lists ... are all apparently acceptable if you believe in Emergent Grammar.  (!!)  

(The fact that Noam Chomsky is as influential a thinker as he is and is a linguistics scholar is evidence that either (a) linguistics is a more important focus of study than we realize, or (b) it doesn't matter what we study, as long as we study something at all.

Finally, dear readers, I leave you with the following:

1. If you can't handle wondering what affects what gets elected to your consciousness (oh, bless you, Nick Ellis), wonder about this: Why Is Everything Still Pasteurized in This g.d. Country?
2. Jennifer Miller + Abbreviations = A Guaranteed Good Time.
3. What if there were a way to use hyperlinks in speech?
4. )

parade of fools

The profession of doctoral student is among the very few for which self-contempt is a virtue.

Neither confirmable nor disconfirmable

Think about this, dear readers: If I were a fortune teller on the side, there would be no way for anyone to know.

Perfect Storm of Human Excellence

It's a collision of Olympics and Del Close and Your Fearless Leader is wildly overwhelmed by these things in which she is already unhealthily interested.  Among all the fanfare, I am  currently most obsessed with Becky Kim, and you should be, too.

But think about it!  Improv is thrilling because it's among the most raw and truthful human behavior one can observe.  As for synchro, as Steven Strogatz, another person with whom everyone ought to be obsessed, puts it: "in its most refined form, persistent synchronization can be spectacular" (SYNC, p. 2).  Thus, in one weekend we celebrate two intensely impressive feats of people in groups.

Thus, the intersection of one of the biggest weeks in synchronized swimming and one of the biggest weeks in Improv calls for something special.  Something REALLY special.  And that is ... the one and only Truly Reminiscent moment that will ever appear on this blog (we operate in a spirit of presentism over here, friends.  For more on that subject, read this book.  Incidentally, it was written by my undergraduate dance teacher's mother.  It's also set in China, so there's some Olympic Spirit for you).

On to the Truly Reminiscent:

Once in a synchronized swimming workshop at Michigan a prominent coach came and for an exercise had us do 15 minutes of Improvised Synchronized Swimming.  She played music and told us to do whatever "moved us". We all scattered around the pool and did random things until she turned off the music.  Most of us felt ridiculous, but trusted that she knew what she was doing.  I remember spending a lot of time underwater (they can't see you there).  Finally it ended.  She looked at us blankly, paused, then started talking about something else.  No one ever mentioned it again.

This means worlds shouldn't collide.  That's why Olympics and DCM are stressful.  That's also why I'm intensely grateful the Zebra F-301 Enthusiasts' Summer Spectacular was mercifully scheduled for the week after next.